Updated 10:00 pm, Monday, October 25, 2004

That was the conclusion the Seahawks coach came to yesterday after a night of soul searching and a day of scrutinizing video of his team's face plant of a performance Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals.

It takes a big man to admit he has made mistakes, and his team made enough in the 25-17 loss to qualify Holmgren for Paul Bunyan status.

"I'm very frustrated with how we're playing offense right now," Holmgren said. "I wish I could tell you I have all the answers. I've been at this a while. But sometimes it's just thinking about things, and staying up late and trying to figure out how best we can help the players."

For Holmgren, that means not only getting back to basics, but getting more basic.

"One, I'm not doing a good enough job of teaching it. Or, I've overloaded it so much they can't function the way they're supposed to function," Holmgren said.

"Having said that, now, let's slow down, back up, try and fix this and get better next week," he said about Sunday's game against the defending, but struggling, NFC champion Carolina Panthers at Qwest Field.

The most obvious problem against the Cardinals was Hasselbeck, who shouldered the blame for the loss after throwing a career-high four interceptions and yesterday called the outing "probably the worst game I've ever played."

As Holmgren put it, "I've got to start helping Matt a little bit more. I think he's got too much of the weight of the world on his shoulders. ... He's been so good for the last year and a half that I think we had a tendency, as a coaching staff, to load him up with too much stuff."

Hasselbeck now has more interceptions (eight) than touchdown passes (seven), and his QB rating has plummeted from 91.8 after the Week 5 game against the St. Louis Rams to 69.8.

"Part of my job is to really be on the same page as (Holmgren)," Hasselbeck said. "He calls a play, he calls it for a reason, he's expecting a certain thing. ...

"There were a few times where I was thinking something different than he was."

Steve Young, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, made the same observation last week when he was at Seahawks headquarters to tape an interview with Jerry Rice in his role as an analyst for ESPN.

"He got a little crazy last week," Young said of Hasselbeck's performance against New England.

If that was crazy, what happened against the Cardinals was total insanity.

But there were, and have been, other troubles for this offense that is anchored in a rhythm passing game. When things get out of sync, the Seahawks stumble around like they did at Sun Devil Stadium.

That's where Alexander re-enters the picture.

"We are at our best when we are more balanced," Holmgren said. "There is no question about that."

Alexander's blend of running skills have been all but shoved to afterthought status the past two games. He carried the ball only 12 times against the Cardinals and had just 16 carries in the loss to the Patriots the week before.

"Shaun has been very productive for us," Holmgren said. "What I have to do is try and get him the ball more."

Against the Patriots, the Seahawks got into the red zone five times but had only one touchdown and three field goals to show for it. It was Alexander who scored, on a 9-yard run. Other than that, he touched the ball only once on 15 other snaps inside the Patriots' 20-yard line.

Sunday in Arizona, the Seahawks had 23 first-down plays, but ran only seven times -- six by Alexander, with mixed results. He was stopped for losses of 7 and 2 yards and no gain, but also broke runs of 16 and 7 yards.

It's this first-down problem in which Holmgren continues an internal wrestling match.

But there was no debate that simplifying the offense is the proper, if somewhat surprising, move to make this far into a season that began with such heightened expectations.

"I don't mind having a hundred-some odd plays of offense in our playbook, and I don't mind us having all different forms of blocking running plays and pass protections," Alexander said. "But I think as the game goes, there are some simple things that we need to get to and we haven't been doing it."